On coverage and capacity of relaying in LTE-advanced in example deployments

Relaying as a means of in-band backhaul has the potential to extend the coverage of Beyond 3G networks, enabling the expected high data rates of these networks to be delivered without increasing the density of traditional macro base stations. Assessing the performance of relaying is not simple, since traditional metrics fail and the performance depends strongly on the actual deployment. The current literature considers usually very artificial deployment environments and propagation models. This paper shows the coverage and achievable peak data rates for an urban area in central London using three-dimensional building data and a ray-tracing simulator. The number of relays per sector is determined for different scenarios, and compared to a Macro Deployment.